W W INTERVIEW
L L
AN INTERVIEW WITH LIAM HANLON
Liam Hanlon, local businessman and organiser of the Across Mersey Swim shares
with us his life story, passion for adventure and love of open water swimming.
Liam Hanlon was born in Bristol in 1967 and was the second
eldest son of Diane and Ray Hanlon. Shortly after his birth,
Liam and his family moved to Rock Ferry where he grew up
with his seven siblings before moving to Oxton. Despite not being
academic at school, but with direction and support from his
devoted parents, Liam has gone onto enjoy a successful career as
joint Managing Director of the multimillion pound construction
company - The Forshaw Group. Sport and charity has always
been important to the Hanlon family; Liam founded the Tri-4-
Life charitable organisation, organises the Across Mersey Swim
and is always seeking his next sporting challenge. Married to
his long-term sweetheart Debbie, they have two children Kiera
and Caitlin and now live in Caldy. In an exclusive and inspiring
interview, we find out more about Liam and his adventures.
You are one of seven siblings. As a large family what principles
did your parents instil?
My father worked as a self-employed joiner in the building
trade, whilst my mother took care of everything else. My parents
were also foster carers so as many as twelve children shared
the family home in Kings Mount, Oxton. Their no-nonsense
approach to parenting instilled some valuable principles about
self-reliance, accountability and working hard from an early
age. We were encouraged to join as many youth clubs, sports
clubs and organisations as we had time for. So life was always
busy for us - full of new experiences and packed with fun and
always local to the mighty River Mersey.
Has sport always played a big part in your family life?
During the early 1970’s, my parents ordered a design pack for
the first prototype Hang-Glider and they soon became the
founding members of the British Hang-Gliding Association.
Dad would cut and drill the aluminium tubing to make the
frame work and mum would carefully cut and sow the sail
material to fit. My brother Sean and I would spend the weekends
trawling the scrapyards of Birkenhead cutting out the seatbelts
from old cars to be used as webbing to make the harnesses for
the pilots. Our Sunday’s were spent loading the new gliders
onto Dad’s Mini and heading to the mountains of North Wales.
In those days, all the equipment was carried from the bottom to
the top of the mountain and the flight was always the other way.
A good flight was noted if you managed to land with yourself
and your kite in one piece. Sean and I enjoyed some amazing
early solo flying experiences on dad’s homemade glider at the
age of nine and ten, until the legislation and Health & Safety
caught up with the sport. Being introduced to this wilderness,
adventure environment, in all weather conditions, from such
an early age shaped my desire and aspirations of what could be
possible. The sport of Hang-Gliding remains one of the premier
adventure sports in the world and our family members continue
to fly. During my lifelong enjoyment in sport participation, I
have been fortunate to represent my club, county and region
in swimming, boxing and skiing. I have travelled the world
and experienced many diverse environments on expedition
experiences with the Army Cadet Force, Royal Marine Reserve
and Raleigh International.
In your school years, were you academic or more practical?
My secondary education years were academically uneventful.
The only talents and ability I had was for sport and physical
education and these were not recognised subjects in the early
1980’s. Anyone of my age group will also remember the political
and social backdrop to this worrying period being jaded by the
power cuts and industrial action, the miner’s strikes and the race
riots. As a young army cadet, my teenage years were strongly
influenced by the Falkland’s War. With the highest youth
unemployment on record and no real career or employment
aspirations, I decided my future would be as a Royal Marine
Commando. However, dad had other ideas and had arranged
for me to attend an aptitude test with the Construction Industry
Training Board for a placement on a joinery apprenticeship
Youth Training Scheme with Balfour Beatty Building. This
proved to be a defining decision in the shaping of my future.
You have a very successful career. Tell us more about your
career path.
The subsequent teamwork and leadership skills transferred
into my working career since joining the construction industry
at sixteen years old in 1984. I spent twelve years with Balfour
Beatty progressing through a trade apprenticeship, tradesman
and foreman, gaining BTEC, HNC, CITB, HND and CIOB
wirrallife.com 23